Murder trial begins in fatal beating of elderly Fairview man

Calling it a crime of “senseless brutality,” a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday that an 88-year-old Fairview man was targeted for a robbery because of his age and vulnerability, and beaten so severely about the head that he died nine days later.

Edwin Estrada, 22, pummeled Vincent Leuzzi in his living room with a sauce pan, bashing in his skull in several places, before fleeing with his wallet and credit card, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor John Higgins said in his opening statement in state Superior Court, Hackensack.

Leuzzi, born in Italy, was a retired mason and bricklayer who had served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. He had been watching television and possibly had fallen asleep when Estrada entered his modest second-floor apartment and attacked him on July 15, 2010, the prosecutor said.

Defense lawyer John Pieroni told jurors that Estrada was 18 and lived in Cliffside Park at the time, came from a dysfunctional family, and suffered from a history of alcohol, drug and psychiatric problems. If Estrada has a mental defect or disorder and can’t form the requisite intent to commit the offenses charged, then he cannot be found guilty, Pieroni said. That key issue of Estrada’s state of mind will be established through the psychiatric evidence he will present, Pieroni said.

Estrada faces felony murder and other charges. Last year, he agreed to a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter charges. But the plea deal, which called for a 27-year prison term, was vacated by another judge after Leuzzi’s relatives objected that he would not be sufficiently punished.

Police responding to a phone call from Leuzzi’s stepdaughter, found Leuzzi on his knees, bleeding profusely from his head and trying to pull himself onto the couch, Higgins said. A dented pasta sauce pot was found nearby.

Minutes earlier, Leuzzi had called his stepdaughter to say he had been attacked and was hurt. He was still coherent when police arrived, but couldn’t say who or what had hit him, Higgins said.

Leuzzi’s health took a turn for the worse the next morning, and he never recovered, the prosecutor said.

Meanwhile, police tracking the stolen credit card found it had been used in New York’s Times Square hours after the assault. Teams of detectives sent out to look for surveillance video found video of Estrada making several purchases but had no idea who he was, Higgins said.

A break in the case came when Leuzzi’s grandson, Andrew Abella, acknowledged to detectives that he knew Estrada and had told him that his grandfather kept cash in his home, Higgins said. Abella, who is expected to testify for the state, has pleaded guilty to charges that he plotted with Estrada to burglarize Leuzzi’s home in the months before his death.

Higgins said Estrada had visited Leuzzi before the alleged burglary. A week before the fatal attack, Leuzzi called his grandson to tell him that some of Abella’s friends wanted to talk to him, Higgins said. Estrada then got on Leuzzi’s phone and said he wanted to show Abella something. By the time Abella arrived, Estrada was gone.

Higgins suggested that the trauma of the assault or the cerebral bleeding that eventually killed him may have prevented Leuzzi from remembering his attacker.

Estrada was arrested days later in upper Manhattan and during the ride to a police precinct house asked if Leuzzi was dead, Higgins said. After being advised of his right to remain silent, Estrada gave an audio statement in which he admitted hitting Leuzzi with the pot twice, then three times and eventually four times, Higgins said.

Estrada told investigators that, he grabbed the pan and hit Leuzzi when Leuzzi became agitated and reached for what he assumed was a gun.

Clasping his hands around his head, Higgins showed the jury how Leuzzi had tried to ward off blows to his face, ears and the back of his head. The autopsy showed Leuzzi suffered at least nine blows, three of which caused the bone to crack, separate and be pushed in, Higgins said.

Pieroni asked jurors to consider whether Estrada’s belief that Leuzzi may have had a weapon to defend himself was consistent with a rational mind or showed someone who was hallucinating and not rational.

He said the case will hinge on the state’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Estrada possessed the requisite state of mind to commit the crimes. “I submit the state is going to fail,” he said.